Lapolo declares the closure of four camps in Pader on Tuesday

By Chris Ocowun

PADER district and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday closed four IDP camps.

They called on the former internally displaced persons (IDPs) to suspend funeral rites, where people go to feast, in spite of the food shortage in the region.

The landowners, who hosted the IDP camps, have asked the Government and UN agencies to help them reclaim their land for agricultural production as people return to their homes.

They argued that latrines and dumping sites should be destroyed and their land levelled.

“The closure of the camps does not mean stopping of our programmes in the former camps. We shall destroy the abandoned huts, cover the pit-latrines and level the land before handing it over to the owners,” said Mohamed God Boudan, a UNHCR representative.

Boudan said the closure of Kalongo, Omot, Puranga and Pader town council camps marks a new chapter in the life of people in Pader district.

“Because of improvement in security, people started moving back to their villages. The number of IDP camps all over this sub-region has reduced from 243 to 121. Only 139,000 out 339,000 people are estimated to be remaining there,” Boudan said.

He noted that most of the vulnerable individuals, like the elders, children and widows, were stuck in the camps because they could not trace their original homes.

The IDPs, who are returning to their homes, expressed disappointment over the Government’s failure to provide them with food as promised.

They requested for sponsorship to their children in institutions of learning.
District leaders suggested that the clans of the vulnerable individuals should help in resettling them.

Pader resident district commissioner Santo Okot Lapolo said since the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency had ended, all people should return to their villages.

Lapolo urged the people to embrace government programmes after settling in their villages.

He also said the army had defeated the Karimojong cattle rustlers who used to disturb people along the border.